Student Meaning-Making of an Allegorical Picturebook in Social Studies

Abstract Participation in a classroom-based study provided Grade 4 students with multiple opportunities to develop their visual meaning-making skills and competences, as well as their aesthetic understanding of and critical thinking about multimodal ensembles. Intentionally-designed instruction during the multifaceted research included a variety of activities focused on a selection of elements of visual art and design. Student participants read and discussed, and wrote about picturebooks during Language Arts, Science and Social Studies. The Rabbits, a picturebook that has been interpreted as a powerful and unsettling allegory of colonization, industrializaiton, and ecological destruction, was one selection of literature featured during a Social Studies unit on European exploration. The content analysis of the students’ responses to The Rabbits revealed how the students identified, described, and interpreted Shaun Tan’s use of color, visual point of view, and typography as fulfilling multiple, and often simultaneous, meaning-making purposes. The responses provided evidence of student engagement in sophisticated visual analysis and symbolic interpretation that deepened their critical understanding and appreciation of The Rabbits, as well as enhanced their understanding of curriculum. Overall, the findings extend the limited research on how student knowledge about and interpretation of elements of visual art and design in the artwork in picturebooks used for Social Studies pedagogy can simultaneously develop students’ visual reading skills, enhance their comprehension of curricular content, and build their higher-order thinking skills.